By Jane Okeke
The Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation, Benson Olugbuo has said that the organization will use its position as the CSO representative in the membership structure of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC) to advance its work in public safety, security and access to justice in Nigeria.
He made this assertion on Friday in Abuja during the 5th National Working Group Meeting on “Promoting Transparency and Accountability in the Administration of Criminal Justice in Nigeria.”
Olugbuo said that the project deploys technology as a tool to realize its goals by way of digitization of court proceedings / judgements on corruption-related cases to promote accountability and transparency within the judiciary.
According to him, the project principally seeks to monitor cases of corruption and financial crimes in relation to the implementation of the provisions of the ACJA 2015 through a we-based platform (www.cleen.uwazi.jo) Uwazi doc, which is functional, well resourced, accessible, and within the reach of the public.
Among other benefits, he pointed out that the project is also targeted at the setting up of legal resource centres across eight of the country to boost legal research on corruption and financial crimes cases.
“Presently, we have established seven (7) resource centres in FCT, Lagos, Anambra, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo and Enugu states with that of Kaduna to be launched in a short time.
“We envision that the resource centres will grow to become the hub of legal research for lawyers and other stakeholders within the criminal justice system and the general public.
“It is gratifying to note that CLEEN Foundation is now the CSO representative in the membership structure of the Administration of Criminal Justice Monitoring Committee (ACJMC), established under S.469 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
“We pledge to use this position to advance our work in the public safety, security and access to justice in Nigeria,” he said.
